Thursday, September 4, 2008

How did the HIV/AIDs epidemic first start


How did the HIV/AIDs epidemic first start????
My sister told me that a male flight attendent had sex with some monkeys, got AIDs and had sex with a bunch of other people, spreading it. I don't believe her, but how did it start?
Infectious Diseases - 3 Answers
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1 :
HIV is like any other virus - it mutates to fit the environment. It has been traced to a similar virus in monkees in Africa, but it isn't fatal in them and that specific virus doesn't affect humans. It is surmised that at some point the virus mutated and became transmittable to humans, but the exact time and location cannot be determined; it is theorized however that it most likely occured in the early to mid 20th century around the Camaroon area. The first scientifically accepted death from AIDS dates back to 1959, with earlier cases suspected.
2 :
well when aids was first discovered back in the 70's the closest thing to aids that was found was discovered in primates in Africa. Now given mans ridiculous perversions it may not be totally unfeasible that some African made love to an ape or performed some unmentionable act of bestiality and then went on to make love to African women who in turn passed it on untill of course ladies of ill repute had the virus. Now enter stage left the flight attendant (yupp he existed) and he was Bi-sexual to boot as well. he then went on to have lots of fun in LA and the rest is history. It was originally widespread in the gay community but now as we all know has spread worldwide and no one is safe from its clutches if they aren't carefull. there are actually imbeciles out there who want to be Gifted the virus Go figure they crave to be infected I Watched an alarming documentary a cople of months ago in the uk about these morons
3 :
OK. Yes, HIV mutated from Simian Immunedeficiency Virus and began spreading in the human population. HIV-2, a different strain of HIV also decended from a relative of the SIV. The male flight attendant/sex with monkeys myths are still around which is very disturbing to me. Try having sex with a wild primate. It would probably kill you or at least cause damage. It is highly unlikely and speaks more to our racist thinking than anything else. Primates were a source of food. Hunters hunted and killed them, cut them up for meat and were exposed to large amounts of the primate blood. It is from here that a few people were most likely infected with a strain that became HIV. The flight attendant case was a horrible travesty of justice. Dumas? I think his name was. When HIV was first being looked at epidemiologically (shortly after discovering that something was making gay men sick), this Dumas gentleman seemed to be the index case. This was taken up by the media and this man was vilified. He was not the cause of the spread of all HIV and probably not even of that original group. The first cases of known AIDS occured before Dumas was even born.



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